Raghunath Murmu

Raghunath Murmu
Portrait of Raghunath Murmu
Native name
ᱨᱟᱹᱜᱷᱩᱱᱟᱛ ᱢᱩᱨᱢᱩ
Born5 May 1905
Dandbose, Rairangpur, Mayurbhanj State, British India
(present-day Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India)
Died1 February 1982(1982-02-01) (aged 76)
OccupationIdeologist, playwright, and writer
NationalityIndian
GenresDrama, folklore
SubjectSantali literature, Ol Chiki script
ChildrenSidha Lal Murmu

Raghunath Murmu (5 May 1905 – 1 February 1982) was an Indian writer and educator. He developed the Ol Chiki script for the Santali language.

Until the nineteenth century, Santali people had no written language and knowledge was transmitted orally from one generation to other. Later European researchers and Christian missionaries started to use Bengali, Odia, and Roman scripts to document the Santali language. However, the Santalis did not have their own script. He developed the Ol Chiki script for the Santalis. He wrote many songs, plays and school text books in the Ol Chiki script.